A Plants Gift to All Living Things

Plants have been on planet earth a very long time, over 300 million years. They live both below and above the planet surface, holding soil in place with roots and shading the earth with their foliage. However, plants have a far broader planetary importance; plants both produce and consume food, all other life only consume. Plants know how to make food from the most ubiquitous and precious of resources; air, sunlight and water, each leaf a solar collector and food factory. The molecule CO2 is drawn in from the air and split by the process of photosynthesis. The liberated carbon atom is used to make organic foods (organic meaning any molecule with carbon in it), the liberated oxygen is given off through the leaves as a gas. The very gas we breath.

Plants make enough food to feed themselves, feed the soil microorganisms through their roots, and feed all other life on the planet. In addition, the carbon trapped in their leaves during the growing season falls to the ground sequestered by the activities of macro and microorganisms (worms, beetles, ants, to the smallest bacteria you’ll need a microscope to see). These soil organisms consume organic carbon in much the same way we eat.

The plant food given to the microbial world through the roots isn’t a one-way street with plants doing all the giving. Roots have an intricate relationship with microbes dating back to the very first plant. Nearly 30% of the food produced by plants is shared with microbes. In exchange microbes ‘mine’ for nutrients plants need but have a hard time obtaining. Microbes will survive without plants but plants need microbes to survive.

The connection of plants, sun, soil, water and air is the true meaning of the WorldWideWeb.

As we go through life consuming, think of all that plants give and be humbled by their gifts.